


Cup Of Crimson Tea

by Insomniacfuelledbycaffeine



Category: Servamp (Anime & Manga)
Genre: ?comfort, And Old Child is a good brother, Angst, Author had a mental breakdown so wrote this, Basically Sleepy Ash is a mess, Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, also I used google for some infos, might write more oneshots like that... idk, shakespeare reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 03:53:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16905624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insomniacfuelledbycaffeine/pseuds/Insomniacfuelledbycaffeine
Summary: Sleepy Ash is the big brother, and big brothers are always strong and can take care of themselves alone.Big brothers are here to protect and comfort their little siblings.But sometimes it's too much to handle alone.((Big brother Sloth needs help))





	Cup Of Crimson Tea

**Author's Note:**

> For the small story, I'm the big sibling in the house, and have been expected to always stand tall and strong and leave feelings and futile comfort to my little sister.
> 
> Enjoy ?

> Out, damned spot ! Out, I say ! [...] Here's the smell of blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
> 
> -Lady Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 1 of  _Macbeth -_ William Shakespeare

 

 

 

 

England had quite tall buildings.

 

A small stray cat jumps from roof to roof in a strangely lazy manner, legs curling and stretching in some casual habit. Tiles made rusty notes as he kicked them while walking on the longest roofs, looking down at the crowd busying itself downtown.

Ruby red eyes scan it hopelessly. As loud as it was, he couldn't hear that particular heartbeat, nor spot that particular person in it. He was getting impatient; he needed to get to his brother.

At the end of one of those dusty red tile trails, he looks right, then left, then right again for good mesure before jumping to the ground in a shuffle of dark clothing.

A blue haired man gets up where the cat had jumped. Hands in his pockets, tired glassy orbs staring at the ground. A few people pass by him, don't even pay a second of attention at him and his heavy eyebags, him and his curled back.

Though there wasn't much to see. Head raises, blue bangs fall on the side of his head- all his features seemed to be slowed down by his sleepiness. He sighs.

Humans had boring heartbeats. Always the same, sometimes slightly quicker or slower; sometimes even weirdly skippy- bom, bom, pause. And start again. He never paid much attention to these skips, except when they were too long- except when they stopped the rhythm for real.

Dead people had even more boring heartbeats, because they had no heartbeats, because they were dead.

Sigh again. Apart from the boring thuds filling his eardrums, the tall man didn't hear anything interesting. Stupid insults thrown around, casual banter, childish cries; not what he was searching for.

He hoped- for the sake of- that his brother was still around.

His brother liked England. He found it interesting, and sometimes even offered plays to their siblings (the fifth brother had always loved them); written by some Shake-thing or whatever was his name. He didn't really care about that right now, since the thought only reminded him that he still. Hadn't. Found.

His brother.

 

An extremely quick heartbeat suddenly reaches his ear. He peaks up, eyes owlishly blinking in surprise. Quick heartbeat.

Pitter patter that went so fast he couldn't even count them. It was way too fast.

Not a human's heartbeat.

And as it suddenly makes a horribly scary stop for a few seconds before going back crazy, the man's mouth extends in an unsteady-glad ?- crooked- relieved smile.

Pitter patter. Going so fast he was already losing its track.

Sleepy Ash starts running.  

 

 

-

 

 

"You must have done a terribly long road to come here. Please do take a seat. I would appreciate if you let me just... clean myself up, if you understand what I mean."

"... of course."

He had followed his little brother's heartbeat up to the biggest and tallest (and also darkest) mansion of the city. It was situated on higher grounds, right on its border, as overlooking the small insignificant crowd with its dusty windows. As he had understood quickly, Old Child had gone... hunting, as one may say. He had watched quite awkwardly as the small one had thrown a cold baby in the fireplace- "Poor soul, child died as soon as it got out of its mother's womb. And I needed blood, so..."

He associates the sudden stop of heartbeat to the moment when he had... the baby...

It felt gross, even for Sleepy Ash. After all, his brother had taken a habit to always drink blood only from dying people, or already dead people; although they tasted horrible (or so he thought). Old Child didn't enjoy killing. Besides, his small body didn't require as much blood as Sleepy Ash (nor as much blood as any of their siblings), so he lived in a strict diet- eating human food more than he needed to, and drinking less blood than a normal vampire should.

That didn't affect any of his capacities, from what the older immortal had observed. Though Old Child hadn't used his eerie abilites in a very long time, to preserve his home.

Yes, England was a nice place. But along with France and other European countries, it had a bad habit of burning anything they considered as supernatural. 

 

That had been the cause of his little brother's last eve's death.

 

So they didn't talk about it.

 

But the thought still lingered in the vast mansion. On every painting, in every carpet, sticking in the smoky windows; it was heavy. The most apparent touch, though, was how invisible his brother had learned to become.

He had always been very small, he had become smaller. More normal. Clothes that appeared as... fitting to a child's, and Sleepy Ash guessed he also acted like one when in public.

He wonders what kind of excuses he came up with; probably very convincing one.

Little warm pearls out of chapped lips. Nothing suspicious. Lukewarm lies, bathing all who knew him in a comfortable sense of safety.

If only they knew...

"Alright, dear brother, what did you require my help for ?" Sleepy Ash slowly turns his head to the side as his brother enters the room once again, now draped in a black cloak (too big for him, but again you wouldn't find any decent cloaks suited for a five year old child). He casually jumps on the loveseat opposite from the one he had made his older brother sit down in, and crosses his hands over his lap in a delicate manner.

Sleepy Ash suddenly forgets how to speak. Silence stretches out- though he knows both of them can hear the other's heartbeat like seconds ticking in.

And Old Child's heartbeat was similar to one of a bat's, approximately 900 beats per minute (according to some crooked calculs the third brother had done), which also meant that he had 15 beats per second, which was overall a lot more than the older brother's 200 per minute.

Another peculiar faculty of this heartbeat was that Old Child could slow it down at will.

 

To be silent.

 

 

Completely silent.

 

(42 beats and less by minute was still something, but compared to the usual 900 it was eerilie slow.)

 

 

The small immortal coughs, his heart skips a few seconds- Sleepy Ash feels his own heart skip the same seconds. "Why did you come here, brother ?"

"Uh-" intelligent stutter, the older brother stares at the ground. "Well I-hum-just wanted to..." 

No no no that wasn't it at all. Old Child watches him curiously; they hadn't seen each other in like... perhaps one hundred years ? And he still had the same interesting expression when watching him stumble upon his words. As Sleepy Ash falls deeper and deeper in a mess of mumbling, the youngest immortal jumps to his feet again.

"I'll make some tea." He smiles quickly- he hadn't changed one bit. "Hm, would you like some strong black tea, or green tea better ?"

"B-black."

"Alright then." He exits the room, softly pushing the door behind him.

Sleepy Ash is alone again. He stares at his hands, fingers curled upon themselves; upon the worn out gloves he was wearing. Glares at them even.

Alone. He takes a deep breath, swallowing thickly, trying to relax in the loveseat. Remembering why he's here.

It wasn't some kind of surprise visit done just to see his brother because he had missed him. He was here because his- and he didn't know what to do- it scares him to go end, which would explain why he had finally gave up on trying to take care of the matter on his own.

Going for help to his little brother felt like breaking a law. But after all, Old Child had always been the one to keep them all in check, after sensei had- gave up on them, and one day Sleepy Ash had given up (just like-) on trying to take care of them.

He was so tired. And a bad brother. So nobody had lost anything.

He doesn't react when his little big brother comes back in with a kettle and two cups, putting them carefully on the small table next to his seat. He doesn't react when he pours some burning tea in the cup, doesn't react either when he hands the cup to him.

"Hm, you can take your gloves off," Old Child points out, gently rubbing a small hand on his thumb, other hand holding the cup. "Sleepy Ash ?"

Heartbeat speeds up, if that was even possible for his brother, before stopping- slowing down.

 

It doesn't catch its pace up again in a long time.

 

"Um, I wanted to talk to you about it... yeah..." the older vampire hesitantly pulls on one of the fingers. Old Child's expression turns blank, heartbeat doesn't speed up again.

"Alright, show them to me please." His voice is soulless, as tasteless as water, pouring down Sleepy Ash's face. It's cold.

 

Taking the glove off is quick, not as dramatic as expected. His brother looks at them, small fingers tracing along the-

Along the-

The-

 

"You chose the wrong eve, that is what you did- I suppose ?" He nods, silent. "And... these are not only located here ? There are more ?" Nod again. "And they won't go away ?"

"Yes."

Sleepy Ash completely shuts down after that. He lets his brother raise him up and bring him to one of the mansion's bedrooms, lets him move his clothes around, lets him silently observe, judge, take a look at the thin lines running around his body.

 

Lets his little tiny baby brother take care of his heavy ugly scars.

 

Of course Old Child would know about that single weakness all of them beared; yet the fact that he knew about it also raised questions- did he also get-?

Servamps were immortal. Even if they got injured, they would just have to drink blood and in an undetermined amount of time they could completely recover from any wound possible, with no scar on their precious skin.

 

(He didn't like it. His skin was always flawless; it didn't show how much of a monster he was.)

 

And his last eve-

His last eve-

 

"It's my fault." He suddenly blurts out after... a few seconds ? Minutes ? Hours ? He only knows that the younger one is rubbing some unknown mixture on his arm, up and down, letting a thin blanket of cream-like component rest on his body; he feels like wrapped in a cocoon.

"Pardon me ?" He asks gently, not saying anything else. He turns his arm up, applies more of the mixture on its other side, continues rubbing. When he doesn't answer, he decides to talk more, "You might also wish to know what this is; it's a mixture I created to help scars heal better and quicker. It has been made of... a lot of things."

His voice is calm, reasoned, way more mature than one of a child's. Sleepy Ash feels many words weighten his tongue, he wants to say what happened but he doesn't have to after all.

 

But he should tell him.

But it's just another story in his long long life.

But it's the first time-

The first time-

 

"I needed blood." He starts, voice rough. Words prickle his skin, chest his tight, he is forcing the story out. "So I chose a random woman to be my eve.

I didn't care about her. I only wanted blood. I was so thirsty. I just-"

He stops. Takes a deep breath. Old Child is still slowly rubbing more cream on his other arm now.

He doesn't ask for the rest of the story. The stream of words is strangling him anyways. But his throat is itching, itching itching itching and he hasn't talked for too long.

"She discovered I didn't care at some point and obviously she got mad-"

"And this happened." He is cut short, he feels the oxygen being forced out of his lungs. He blinks, quickly, breathes again, directs his eyes at his brother who stops moving his fingers. "I believe ?"

"Uh-ye-yeah." He quite intelligently mumbles, still slightly taken aback. His head is fuzzy, a ball of cotton. Though there is something still in there, a very big needle, right in the middle of it all, going from one temple to the other.

 

He can't take it off.

 

"Unlucky indeed." Old Child finally breaks the silence again, continuing to apply cream around. "We are all unlucky sometimes."

"Yeah." He repeats, same word again. Sleepy Ash's eyes are burning, he wants throw up.

"Look," the small one gets up, lowers his head to meet his gaze, "from now on, I'm going to be a better brother, alright ? I am stupidly powerless, but I'll do my best."

Big red eyes, ruby red orbs gravely staring at him, pale face and pointy nose; mouth in a very thin line. 

 

He was his little brother and he was saying that it was his job to take care of Sleepy Ash; who was his big brother.

The roles were reversing once again. 

 

His sight goes blurry as he feels his chest suddenly clenching in a violent squeeze, throat clogging itself definitely. Sleepy Ash can't see anymore, it hurts and he's a mess and he's injured and he can't get up alone and-

"Come on, stop crying, it's no good." Small delicate fingers on his cheeks, gingerly wiping away burning icy tears off. "Huh, big brother ?"

"I'm-" his chest gives up and his throat gives up and he is drowning in tears-"I'm so sorry I'm so sorry-" his voice cracks in the end, hiccup, bite your lip and stop crying-

 

Please stop crying-

 

(And he remembers the hits and the screams and all the scars he tried to wash off so many times in infinite tons of blood.)

(But the scars were still here and so were the memories.)

 

No answer ever comes. But he hears a few sniffles that stab his heart- Old Child didn't have emotions- "I'll make more tea. You liked that black tea, right ?"

"I-I did." And he really did. It was warm and tasted of velvet cushions and smoky windows. "It was good."

Sleepy Ash blinks, vision finally clearing ever so slightly, just to see his brother nodding vigorously. "I knew you'd like it. I'll make some more. It'll help clear your mind."

Old Child stops talking after that, time stretching out, heartbeats running even faster than usual. Then he nods again, still silent, turns around and leaves the bedroom just like that.

 

The big brother supposes that washing his scars and worries off with tea was the best option he currently had. 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> WHERE ARE THE PRIDE AND LUST PAIRS TANAKA STRIKE ??? WHERE ARE THEY ?????
> 
> Hope you didn't feel too bad reading this because of my unexistent writing skills lmao
> 
> I'm trying to get out of my writer's block with this kind of stuff tbh
> 
>  
> 
> ((I might write more oneshots centered on these two's relationship, or the general ties between all the servamp. Ideas and requests are welcome.))


End file.
